Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the Holocaust and a cute pig star are not to Muslim tastes. In 2008, Malaysia's leading
Islamic council issued an edict against yoga, fearing the exercises could corrupt Muslims.
Syariah
(Islamic law) is the preserve of state governments, as is the establishment of
Muslim courts of law, which since 1988 cannot be overruled by secular courts. This has
had a negative impact on Muslims wishing to change their religion and divorced parents
who cannot agree on a religion by which to raise their children. The end result is that
Malaysian Muslims who change their religion or practice no faith at all hardly ever make
their choice public.
Those that do, such as Lina Joy, a Malay convert to Christianity, face insurmountable
difficulties. After battling for nine years through the legal system, Ms Joy failed in 2007
to be allowed to have her choice of religion recognised on her identity card. Malaysia's
high court ruled that she first needed permission from the
syariah
court - an institution
that would treat her action as apostasy to be punished.
It's believed only one woman - 88-year-old Wong Ah Kui (legally known as Nyonya
Tahir) - has ever been officially allowed to leave Islam in Malaysia, and then only after
she had died in 2006 and her family wanted to have a Buddhist funeral.
Malaysian politicians have been known to call in a
bomoh
- a traditional spiritual healer and spirit medium
- during election campaigns to assist in their strategy and provide some foresight.
Anti-Semitism
Penang once had a Jewish community large enough to support a synagogue (closed in
1976) and there's been a Jewish cemetery in George Town since 1805. Elsewhere in
Malaysia, Jewish life is practically unknown.
Sadly, anti-Semitism, ostensibly tied to criticism of Israel, is a feature of Malaysia. In
KL's bookshops it's not difficult to find anti-Semitic publications like
The Protocols of the
Elders of Zion
. Former prime minister Mahathir is the most infamously outspoken Malay-
sian anti-Semite: in 2003 he made a speech to an Islamic leadership conference claiming
the USA is a tool of Jewish overlords, and he once cancelled a planned tour of Malaysia
by the New York Philharmonic because the programme included work by a Jewish com-
poser.
More recently, after the July 2011 Bersih rally in KL to demand greater transparency in
electoral law, the UMNO-owned Malay newspaper
Utusan Malaysia
claimed such
demonstrations would make the country vulnerable to interference by Jews and Israel. The
Malaysian government later distanced itself from the newspaper's comments.
